THE MERSEYBEAT STORY

In conjunction with

MERSEYCATS
THE ROCK N ROLL CHILDRENS CHARITY

Celebrates

ALLAN WILLIAMS
(The man who gave the Beatles away)
80th Birthday

The Grosvenor Ballroom
Liscard, Wallasey
Sunday 21st February 2010
2-30pm to 5-30pm

LIVE MERSEYBEAT MUSIC
FROM A HOST OF BANDS AND CELEBRITIES

TICKETS £5 Tel 07976282120 or e-mail d.darroch@ntlworld.com
On sale at Fort Perch Rock, New Brighton and Merseycats

Tickets have just been announced for what is to become an annual event at the famous Casbah Club in Liverpool. The Saturday sessions are to run as a joint venture with MerseyCats raising money for Children's Charities. Tickets are £20 per session plus 2.50 P&P.

Show1 - SATURDAY THE 28th AUGUST 2010 (Day) 12.00pm to 6.00pm

• This event is a joint venture with MerseyCats.
• The Pete Best Band plus top Liverpool sixties groups. Line up to be announced. 

 Show 2- SATURDAY THE 28TH OF AUGUST 2010 (Evening) 7.00pm - 12.00am

• The Pete Best Band plus top sixties groups. 
• Line up to be announced.

Tickets £20.00 (plus 2.50 P&P)

 LATEST MERSEYCATS PHOTOGRAPHS

Christmas 2009

View the photos

Casbah Celebrations 2009

View the photos

A Fitting Tribute to Jim Kelly

The Musicians night Saturday 19th December was a fitting tribute to that great MerseyCat Jim Kelly who passed on recently. We all miss him terribly and that showed in the mood of the night and tributes not only from the musicians but also from Charities like Stick N Step (who received a large cheque from Chairman Wally Shepard) revealing that Jim was instrumental in getting MerseyCats behind their important charity.

Congratulations must also go to Colin Woodruff for organising the event, Colin and Dulcie were great personal friends of Jim and will miss him more than most.

Special thanks go to Maja who organised and paid for the raffle tickets and to all the musicians who donated bottles of wine for the tables.

Our thanks also go to the Hard Days Night Shop for providing the Beatles Box Of Vision as a prize in the raffle.

The raffles on the night were a great success and I understand from Beryl Prescott that over £600 was raised.

Jim's death really brought it home to me what MerseyCats is all about. Yes, we are a charity but we are also a collection of crazy musicians, some with egos, some without, who give their time freely to continue the music and raise money for kids who are not as fortunate as us. MerseyCats not only saves the lives of children, but by its very existence, has saved the lives of many members, giving them a new purpose, at a time when they have suffered ill health, personal tragedies, or have lost their way in life, which people do when they join the ranks of "useless eaters" (a phrase coined by Bertram Russell to describe pensioners and non taxpayers). For the benefit of many of the musicians, taxation is a form of payment that other people make to pay for the government.

To see all the smiling faces on a Thursday night you would never guess that behind the veil are many people whose lives are or have been fraught with difficulty. Long may the "Cats" thrive.

"Knee Deep In The Blues"

The Karl Terry, John Frankland, Brian Jones Super Group

The Ultimate MerseyCats Super Group with Karl Terry on guitar and Vocals, John Frankland (The Dominoes), Brian (Sax) Jones (The Undertakers) ably supported by Bill Good (The Undertakers) on bass, organiser of the night Colin Woodruff (The Claytons) on drums, Frank Hopley who travelled all the way from Essex on keys and Alan the guitar on...yes you've guessed it guitar.

"Need Your Love So Bad" - The Bumblies

Steve Maloney of the Bumblies features on lead guitar and vocals. He also did the washing up later on.

"Folsom Prison Blues" - Alex McKechnie

Alex McKechnie organiser of the Mathew Street Festival on Vocals and Guitar ably supported by Mal Price (Winner of "Stars in their Eyes" as Paul McCartney) on bass and "Josh the brief" with some great guitar.

"Bad Case of Lovin' You" - Tempest

 Beryl Prescott and Tempest putting everything into this great number from the 80s.

 Marconi Days

Ian Howe has sent us some video of the early days at the Marconi Club. See if you can recognise the Cats in their earlier incarnation.

Tempest In Cologne

Here's a video of Tempest at the Hard Rock Cafe in Cologne with Baz Davies on vocals filling in for Dave Myers who was unavailable.

Mike Byrne in Cologne

Mike sings Little Queenie backed by members of Tempest and Baz Davies at the Hard Rock Cafe Cologne

Historical MerseyCats

Researching through the stacks of material I've accumulated for my new site Liverpoolbeat I've come across a couple of Merseycats occasions you might like to see.

Shortly before his untimely passing in 2005, Chris Curtis of the Searchers performed at Cats with an all star band. You might recognise Chairman Wally Shepard on bass, Terry Fisher on Guitar with Arty Davies on drums and Mal Jefferson on guitar.

Ex WebMaster David Bedford Launches New Book

We received this email from David last week and would encourage all MerseyCats to support Dave's great piece of work. I hope to do an in depth review over the next few weeks.

Dear Merseycats,

After over 9 years, my book is finally completed, and publicity will be starting very soon. So, I am contacting friends by email first to give you a quick advantage if you want to purchase a copy for yourself, or for a Christmas present, before they go on general release.I spoke to Wal and I'd like to bring some copies up next week if I can - 26th Nov - and then anyone can purchase one if they like. I intend to donate a copy to Merseycats which can be raffled with all the proceeds going to Merseycats.The book features Kay and Wally, plus a story from Flo, as well as Merseycat members like Mike Rice and Dave Peacock among others, plus Merseycats gets a few mentions which will hopefully raise the profile a bit.The book, "Liddypool: Birthplace of The Beatles", is the first Beatles book written solely about The Beatles and Liverpool, and has received some incredible reviews which left me gobsmacked!

• "The best Beatles book I have seen in 20 years" says Bill Heckle, Director of Cavern City Tours and organiser of the annual Beatle Week Festival, Liverpool . 
• "Having been a Beatle for two years and not professing to be a Beatle historian, to me this book is totally enlightening." former Beatles drummer Pete Best, who also wrote the foreword to the book. 
• "At last Liverpool has the Beatles book it deserves. 'Liddypool' has been lovingly assembled, diligently researched and lavishly illustrated. Casual browser and avid fan alike will discover something they didn't already know about the world's most documented quartet. I'd pay the cover price for the pictures alone." Steve Turner, author of "A Hard Day's Write" 
• "It's great to see a book from an author who is trying to sieve his way through all the various myths, legends and half-truths and paint a realistic picture of what really happened." Rod Davis, The Quarrymen 
• "The depth of David Bedford's research is unprecedented. This is a fascinating, valuable and devoted piece of detective work which will appeal to any fan of the Beatles." Janine Ross, Marketing Manager, The Beatles Story Ltd. 

Liddypool can be bought online. If you want more information about the book, look at my website at www.liddypool.com or you can buy direct from www.beatlesshop.co.uk . Post and Packing is free, and you can pay by credit/ debit card, cheque (payable to Mrs. A Bedford) or cash through Alix's online beatlesshop. You can leave any special instructions e.g. if you're local and want to pick it up or have it dropped off etc.  The book is £35 in hardback. Please don't feel under any obligation to buy one (or 2 or 3 or more!), as I won't take offence and I realise it isn't a cheap £5 paperback... Hope you enjoy it. David 

Faron Recovers Well

Pleased to report that Faron has recovered well from his operation and is now home.

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What's The Mogg Been Up To?

I apologise for not keeping up my usual relentless publication of all things MerseyBeat, but I've been a bit busy lately completing a fascinating project which you might like to read about. Most of you will have heard about the release of the Re-Mastered Beatles CDs which are selling out, just like the old days. With most of us downloading tracks from the Internet, this new launch has given record retailers a huge shot in the arm and with Christmas approaching, smart marketeers are always looking to climb onto a successful idea. One such guy is Jonathan Polk a huge Beatles fan from the States. Jon produced a fabulous product called Box of Vision in the States a couple of months ago and it sold out in just a few days. He has now brought it over to the UK and I had the good fortune of being asked to develop the UK website for the product. I've just finished it, and you can take a look here or click the image. Now, the more miserable amongst you might be saying...what's this got to do with MerseyCats, well, you will be pleased to hear that Mogg has written a complete review of the Beatles collection on the site with links back to the Cats site and even a little story about our Chairman Wally Shepard which might surprise some of you. You can see the Beatles Catalogue review page by clicking the link below. If any of you old musos have any other interesting facts about the fab four please email me at info@merseycats.com

The Beatles Catalogue Reviewed by Mogg

Want To Win A Signed Zygmant?

During the fabulous Mathew Street weekend at the Hard Days Night hotel in August, I had the pleasure of meeting the famous Beatles photographer Bill Zygmant. Bill started his career working for the London Star & News Chronicle on the picture desk. In 1961 he joined the East London Gazette as a photographer and then went on to become a photographer with a leading picture agency covering show biz events. In 1964 Bill went freelance and sold pictures & stories to National and International newspaper & magazines including many of the Beatles. Bill is now a freelance photographer holding exhibitions of his Black/White pictures taken in the 60s of stars including the Beatles, Hendrix, Bee Gees and other icons. Bill's photographic art was chosen for the Hard Days night Hotel and the "Zygmant Suite" where The MerseyCats performed was named, in his honour. Bill has recently had an exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery in London and you can see more of Bill's work on his website.

Bill has kindly donated a signed print as a raffle prize for the benefit of the charity and I understand the prize will be part of our special Christmas raffle.

 Secret Band CD Finally Revealed

Yes folks, the secret is out. The Secret MerseyCats Band is non other than Sam Hardie  and George Eccles who have produced a great CD using George's amazing recording desk with just guitar and piano, with the boys adding the other instruments in the final mix. The CD is available as a limited edition of 100 at £6 with £1 going to the charity.

Here's a taster of the album which I think will surprise many people with its versatility. George on Fuzz Guitar, now that's what I call progress. The CD is available at MerseyCats or from www.liverpoolbeat.com.

The Domino Effect - 53 Years On - Volume 11

"Live" At The Cavern

Recordings on site at the Cavern itself over the years have been few and far between, due to the fact that the original place proved to be an acoustical nightmare. Read On.

Skinnie Minnie - Lee Curtis

Latest Videos (To be Played Loud)

Kappa At Cats

Ian Howe has kindly sent us some video of the amazing Paul Kappa performing at Cats in 2008 and the even more amazing Ian on Drums.

First Rushes of the MerseyCats Film at the HDN

As you may know I arranged for a German film to come over and film our exploits at the Hard Days Night Hotel during the Mathew Street Festival. The film crew interviewed many of the Cats and I have been asked what happened to the film footage. Well Ly the Film Director has emailed me to say that the film production which is mainly about the 60s and in particular bands with a connection with Germany, is still ongoing and hopefully be finished early next year.However, she has promised to send some pre production pieces over in the meantime, and here is the first one, yours truly and Chairman Wally Shepard talking about the purpose of MerseyCats and a little bit of its history. I l know you Cats all want to see your ugly mugs on film but you'll have to wait a little longer.

The MerseyCats Video Player

We now have over 60 videos uploaded to You Tube  You can click on any video to see a larger version in You Tube and if you have Real Player on your PC you can download them to your PC.

A Friend of John Banks has been in touch

  As the MerseyCats website continues to reach more people across the globe, we are getting some interesting information through. The latest is an email from Ko Kantorowitz who spent some time with John when he lived in Israel. I've reprinted the email on John's page together with a picture of a young Ko with John. Read on...

STOP PRESS: More pictures of John just received

Searchin at The Hard Days Night Hotel

Searchin performing at the HDN. Visit Searchin's web site Click here

 Derian House Appeal

"Sometimes its impossible to take on board the emotional turmoil involved in the death of a child - perhaps because we simply find it too painful to consider"

 MerseyCats Photos

Want to look back on those crazy Thursday nights, check out the new archive section.

Merseycats Photo Archives

The Ian Edwards Tribute Page Updated

Betty Edwards the lovely wife of the late great Ian Edwards of Ian and The Zodiacs has been kind enough to let us have some never before released photos of Ian and Betty in Germany reliving those Halcyon days of yesteryear

                                Visit the updated page                                   

The Beginnings of The Beatles

This new section contains interesting stories from the early days of the band, some rare video footage, photos and audio tracks before they were fab.